Purchasing land purportedly "owned" by the Cape Town municipality for housing development could cost buyers a fortune, the city has warned following reports of potentially fraudulent property sales made by a company in several parts of the Western Cape.
"It's the same people who are marketing their product in Atlantis, Eerste River, and Scottsdene," said city housing manager Basil Davidson.
"(The company) is signing people up and collecting money from them, but it doesn't seem as if they have any land with developments on it."
According to Davidson, the scheme was brought to the attention of the council a few months ago, but has since become widespread, particularly in Atlantis.
It would be difficult for the council to act, he said, until those affected blew the whistle.
Davidson warned people against buying property without physically viewing the land or development.
No process of the city council would at any time involve the collection in advance of money from communities before services had been rendered.
"People shouldn't be swept up into big meetings and start signing things and paying for ambiguous services," he said.
Davidson said the legitimacy of all city-sanctioned property sales would be clearly indicated to potential buyers.
"It would be clearly indicated that the city is, in fact, initiating the process, and any advertising would have the city's logo," said Davidson.
The council has asked that anyone who suspects a land sale may be unauthorised to ask the company in question to produce the product for which money has been given and, if refused, to report the activity to the housing anti-corruption unit at 0800.204.401. - Cape Times
"It's the same people who are marketing their product in Atlantis, Eerste River, and Scottsdene," said city housing manager Basil Davidson.
"(The company) is signing people up and collecting money from them, but it doesn't seem as if they have any land with developments on it."
According to Davidson, the scheme was brought to the attention of the council a few months ago, but has since become widespread, particularly in Atlantis.
It would be difficult for the council to act, he said, until those affected blew the whistle.
Davidson warned people against buying property without physically viewing the land or development.
No process of the city council would at any time involve the collection in advance of money from communities before services had been rendered.
"People shouldn't be swept up into big meetings and start signing things and paying for ambiguous services," he said.
Davidson said the legitimacy of all city-sanctioned property sales would be clearly indicated to potential buyers.
"It would be clearly indicated that the city is, in fact, initiating the process, and any advertising would have the city's logo," said Davidson.
The council has asked that anyone who suspects a land sale may be unauthorised to ask the company in question to produce the product for which money has been given and, if refused, to report the activity to the housing anti-corruption unit at 0800.204.401. - Cape Times
No comments:
Post a Comment